ATLANTA — Anthony Dorsett looks back on his father’s career and wonders how any one athlete could be so lucky. A national championship in college, a Heisman Trophy, a Super Bowl championship his rookie year. It all seemed to come so easy for dad.

Dad, of course, is Tony Dorsett, the Hall of Fame Cowboys running back, who was fluid and gifted and was destined for greatness since his freshman year at Pittsburgh. Anthony Dorsett hasn’t had it quite that easy. Yet, Sunday they will share Super Bowl history.

If Anthony Dorsett starts at free safety for the Titans in place of the injured Marcus Robertson as expected, he will become the first son of a past Super Bowl starter to also start in the Super Bowl. It’s a source of pride to both Dorsetts.

“I’m just a happy parent,” Tony Dorsett told The Post yesterday. “I’m happy for Anthony, I’m happy for his teammates and I’m happy for the franchise. I’m just ecstatic that my son is getting a chance to play in the Super Bowl. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.”

It is the third father-son combination to reach the Super Bowl. Quarterbacks Bob Griese (Miami, VI, VII, VIII) and son Brian (Denver XXXIII), and defensive tackle Frank Cornish (Miami VI), and son/center Frank (Dallas XXVII, XXVIII) are the others. Now Anthony Dorsett is expected to replace Robertson, who broke his left ankle in the AFC Championship Game against the Jaguars, making the Dorsetts the answers to a future trivia question.

“My dad’s getting a lot of hype and I’m getting a lot of hype, so I think someone needs to give us a commercial or something,” Anthony Dorsett said.

The commercial might talk about how difficult it has been for Anthony Dorsett to reach football’s ultimate stage. While growing up the son of a football legend has its advantages, there are inherent pressures to live up to the family name and the legacy of success. In Tony Dorsett’s case that’s nearly impossible. Anthony Dorsett could rebel, attempt to duplicate or chart his own course. He chose the latter.

He switched from running back to defensive back because he didn’t like getting hit all the time. “I’d rather dish out the banging than receive it,” he said. And he insists on being called Anthony, not Little Tony or Tony Jr. or anything like that.

“He has never let what I did influence him in any way,” the elder Dorsett said. “He has earned everything he has been able to get. He got a late start [in football] and has worked his butt off. There was a time when I didn’t think he’d be as good as he turned out to be. When he was young, he pretty much just talked the game. Now he has learned that you get out of it what you put in it, which pretty much applies to anything in life.”

Dorsett, in his fourth season out of Pitt, will start against the Rams because Robertson, one of the league’s best free safeties, is hurt. That, of course, will make him a primary target of the Rams’ offense, which will be looking to exploit him. Dorsett says, bring it on.

“If that’s what they want to do, they can come at me and try me all they want,” he said. “I’m here to play football this week and that’s the bottom line.”

Dorsett broke into the league wearing No. 30, but soon switched to his dad’s familiar No. 33, in a move to show he was proud of his father and bold enough to invite comparisons. Anthony Dorsett is a tough kid, who earned a job in the NFL with his aggressive play on special teams. It’s the kind of dirty work his father never had to do but son enjoys.

“Everyone looks at me and figures everything’s been sugar coated for me,” he said. “But there’s not too much sweet about it. The name is going to bring all the pressures you can imagine and this number is going to add to it. All my life, even going to the University of Pittsburgh, it has been an uphill battle for me.

“My mother told me I’m an individual and to go ahead and do the best that I can do for myself. I’ve never gone out of my way to do anything to be more like my father. I’ve just had to grow in the ways that I’ve grown. My dad opened a lot of doors for me at a young age and I learned a lot. But it has just been a blessing to come this far.”

Dad admires son because he is a student of the game. As a kid, he watched with big eyes as his father played in Super Bowls XII and XIII. As he got older and picked up football during his junior year in high school, Anthony Dorsett became a film freak. He’d watch old films of father as well as films of various defensive backs he respected like Deion Sanders and Darrell Green.

“He’s a real student of the game,” Tony Dorsett said. “I’d come home and he’d have a video going. Always studying.”

The two talk about football in general, but even though their sport is the same there are some things Tony Dorsett can’t relate to. “He can’t talk about playing special teams because he’s never done that,” Anthony Dorsett said. “When he was at Pitt they won a national championship. When I was at Pitt, we barely won any games. My rookie year, we were 8-8. His rookie year, they went to the Super Bowl and won it. But he has helped me in a lot of ways.

“We’ve talked quite a bit in the last few days. He has told me about the distractions and how to keep my mind on the game and to try to stay focused on everything we need to do to win the game.”

Tony Dorsett will be in the stands to cheer his son on Sunday, wearing something with Titans on it, but not the jersey No. 33. “It’s going to be his day and I’m happy for him,” he said. “I’m just a happy and proud parent.”